A day after a powerful storm lashed Moreno Valley, residents and a local golf course were assessing damage and hoping for a quick recovery.

Residents living just off Redlands Boulevard, were still digging out from the mud that caked the streets and their yards. The perimeters of some homes were surrounded by sandbags after the downpour of Thursday afternoon, Aug. 30.

Puddles remained in yards and streets as the sun rose Friday morning, Aug. 31. Road closures were still in place along parts of Redlands Boulevard, but most motorists just drove past the “Road Closed” signs, sending up waves as they drove through the standing water.

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Paul Higginson left his home off Campbell Avenue during the storm, only to return Friday morning to assess the damage. He moved all his furniture to the center of the home and began deciding what to salvage.

“This was all under water,” Higginson said. “We had about an inch of water in the house, just everything was flooded.

“After about an hour downpour, the ditch behind my home backed up with debris and came through my backyard,” he said. “It wasn’t very pleasant at all.”

Of the three nine-hole links, only one — the Valley 9 — sustained significant damage, said Brandon Hillpot, the tournament director and head professional at Moreno Valley Ranch.

The Valley 9 was not scheduled to be used in the opening round of the three-day, three-course tournament, Hillpot said. Participants will play on the Lake 9 and Mountain 9 on Saturday, Sept. 1, and then move to Goose Greek Golf Course in Jurupa Valley on Sunday, Sept. 2, and then the Oak Valley Golf Club in Beaumont on Monday, Sept. 3, which is Labor Day.

Hillpot said that some of the bunkers are a bit waterlogged, but that should not affect Saturday’s play. The fairways and greens are fine, he said.

Thursday’s storm formed through a convergence of circumstances that developed in northern Mexico and along the Southern California coast.

Heavy monsoonal moisture moved up from Mexico and got caught in a subtropical disturbance along the way, said James Thomas, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.

As this air mass moved into the mountains of southern Riverside County it was caught in what is known as the Elsinore Convergence, a point in the Lake Elsinore-Perris-Hemet-Riverside area where onshore winds coming around the Santa Ana Mountains from the south and north join.

The winds moved upward, creating a strong storm, Thomas said. Winds of 60 mph as well as lightning and heavy rain are typical of these storms.

During the two hours it moved through the area, the storm dumped a bit more than 2¼ inches of rain on eastern Moreno Valley, he said, creating the havoc seen along Moreno Beach Drive and Redlands Boulevard south of Alessandro Boulevard.

At 2:47 p.m., about 45 minutes after the storm began, a wind gust of 61 mph was recorded by the Weather Service’s station at March Air Reserve Base just south of Moreno Valley, Thomas said.

A Weather Service spotter in eastern Moreno Valley reported high winds that knocked down his neighbor’s fence, he said.

Throughout the Inland area, winds of 40 to 50 mph were reported, with 1 to 2 inches of rain falling in many areas — while other areas remained dry.

Fears that the storm might spawn a tornado proved unfounded as the storm moved west out of the area, Thomas said.

In addition to the closure of roads in eastern Moreno Valley south of Highway 60, San Timoteo Canyon Road north of the city was also closed after several vehicles became stuck in water and mud, he said.

In Lake Elsinore, water ran up to the tops of curbs through some streets along the lake’s north shore, he added.

Thunderstorms continue to remain a possibility through Monday, but such occurrences are likely to be more localized and not as severe as Thursday’s incident, Thomas said. The most likely spots for those storms to develop will be in the northeastern San Bernardino Mountains and in the mountains in Riverside County.

By Tuesday, the chance of thunderstorms in the Inland area is expected to fall to zero, he said.

Also contributing to this report: Staff writer Mirjam Swanson, mswanson@pe.com

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